Los Angeles, America’s second-largest metropolis, is one of the world’s great cities — and, if we may be so bold, one of the most beautiful. So it’s strange that L.A. has lagged behind New York, Miami and a host of global hotspots for fine art. We have no shortage of museums. We boast a full complement of rising and established artists. And we check all the boxes when it comes to robust tourism, discriminating taste and a public taste for the festive. As L.A. is poised for remarkable growth and increased renown, it’s time we add a first-rate art event to our stable of hallmark happenings.

Doubtless, the arts scene in L.A. has been steadily expanding, on and off the tastemaker radar. Downtown’s breakneck expansion — you too have probably counted the dozen-plus cranes dotting the swelling skyline — has brought bustling activity to the Arts District and the galleries spread throughout the city’s Historic Core and beyond. And L.A.’s many Art Walks are a fixture of neighborhoods stretched from east to west to south. Long Beach, Pasadena and Venice each offer more than one; beyond downtown L.A., popular art walks include Northeast L.A., Atwater Village and San Pedro.

The museum scene has been burgeoning too. The Broad is just the latest landmark institution of fine art drawing big, enthusiastic crowds. The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA is quintessential L.A. — ever so slightly off the beaten path in Little Tokyo, in a big, bold, Gehry-designed space, newer works from offbeat artists. And then there’s the Marciano Arts Foundation, the new occupant of the fabulous, almost fabulist Masonic Temple building on Wilshire in Mid-City. There, the co-founders of the storied Guess brand have merged traditional gallery features with what’s being pitched as a playground for creatives, space given over with total artistic license in mind.

If museum architecture is a huge part of L.A.’s signature approach to presenting art, as anyone who’s been to the Getty and the Getty Villa can attest, then L.A.’s iconic residential architecture has fueled our fine art for decades.

The Getty itself gives pride of place to Julius Schulman’s hugely influential black-and-white photograph of the Stahl House jutting out over the Hollywood Hills. Commissioned by Arts and Architecture magazine — the name says it all — at the height of the mid-century modern era that still dominates L.A.’s sense of style and design, was named one of the hundred most influential photos of all time. Schulman, rightly if not terribly modestly, called it a masterpiece; Time called it “the most successful real estate image ever taken.”

“It perfected the art of aspirational staging, turning a house into the embodiment of the Good Life, of stardusted Hollywood, of California as the Promised Land,” the magazine noted. “And, thanks to Shulman, that dream now includes a glass box in the sky.” L.A.’s unique appreciation of art, and its monumental influence on contemporary art culture, is truly in the air.

And there is growing interest, demand and innovation in L.A.’s art scene. Even luxury brands are investing time and resources into L.A.’s market that have not done so before. For instance, Christofle Paris has recently begun hosting an “Art of the Table” series in North America. One such event took place at the home of art enthusiast Lani Hsu in Los Angeles with the goal of introducing younger generations to the idea of expressing themselves through the design of table settings.

So now is the perfect time to bring it down to Earth in a freshly powerful way. By all means, we’re off to a good start. Late this past January, Art Los Angeles Contemporary returned to Santa Monica’s Barker Hanger for its eighth annual run. With a relatively closely curated collection of under 70 exhibit participants, ALAC earned raves for bringing a high but palatable level of distinction and sophistication to the L.A. art scene, drawing favorable comparisons to Art Basel itself. The event has earned a strong reputation for art occupying the early and middle stages of creators’ careers — the kind of material that has the vibrancy and freshness that keeps crowds diverse, interested and hungry for more.

Yet there’s no denying that L.A. could lean even more into combining that upstart energy with the more established high-end work worthy of display, celebration and association with the city and its distinctive panache. L.A.’s top-shelf art galleries ought to consider that a challenge well worth accepting. But the best way to do that is by developing a focused but grand new plan to unite all the rich strands of L.A. art into a single, marquee affair.

Lest traditionalists and NIMBY types raise an alarm about some new boondoggle snarling traffic and importing outsiders, any such plan would fit squarely in the sweet spot between the smaller-scale, more ephemeral fun of food and wine festivals and the gargantuan undertaking of, say, the Olympic Games returning to the City of Angels in the not-too-distant future. While some might grumble about having to reroute their commutes around collections of neighbors snacking and sipping in the street, and others view the 2028 Olympics with a sense of logistical dread, the kind of world-class arts event L.A. should craft would be sized right and timed right to attract the kind of crowd everyone would appreciate coming to town — or coming from across town — for one wonderful moment a year.

There’s no sense denying that, just as Coachella has become L.A.’s stop on the global Fashion Week circuit, a premium L.A. art happening would fit right on the geographic rotation for globetrotting art lovers and industry figures. Art Basel’s flight path, so to speak, has an L.A.-shaped slot ready to be filled, between Hong Kong and Miami, with the original Swiss location rounding out the course.

But there’s also no escaping — nor should there be — the insouciant, irreverent and thoroughly ironic artistic spirit that L.A. has cultivated in the absence (so far) of an Art Basel stop. Think of the four-day Art Basil event held in the Van Buys backyard of L.A. performance artist John Kilduff. On word of mouth and favorable press, Kilduff wound up with 50 booths featuring local and international artists. The often-tiny works sat right on the soil behind Kilduff’s place — a gloriously on-the-nose metaphor for grassroots artistry.

L.A. residents know the city’s fountain of artistry flows so strong thanks to its riotous mix of the high and the low, the green and the veteran, the indie and the established. It’s all a golden opportunity to take our presence in the art world to the next level.

James Poulos is an editorial writer and columnist for the Southern California News Group. Brian Calle is the Opinion editor for the Southern California News Group.

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